


Astraphobia

by AnnieAckerman



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 15:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1654187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieAckerman/pseuds/AnnieAckerman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean's a dork afraid of the thunder and he needs comfort because he's a big baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Astraphobia

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfic in like 50 years and this is the first time I've written anything for SnK, I've gotten this beta'd like a million times but still I'm sorry if anyone's OOC or anything. Also I have no idea how tags work. This is my first time using AO3, everything is so confusing and I'm scared.

Even though it meant Jean would have to sleep on the floor, he loved it when Marco spent the night. They stayed up as late as they could, which wasn’t even that late, considering the fact that both boys were still only seven years old. Marco was spending the night at Jean’s house again, because Marco’s parents were out of town and Marco needed a place to stay. He fell asleep first, hugging one of Jean’s stuffed animals. Jean, however, was having trouble falling asleep. The ground was uncomfortable and he was using a pile of clothes as a pillow. Worst of all was the fact that he forgot to grab the stuffed giraffe (a gift from Marco for Jean’s 4th birthday; its spots reminded Jean of Marco’s freckles enough that Jean named the stuffed animal after him). Jean always held onto it when he slept.

Just as Jean was finally about to fall asleep, a loud thunderclap made him jump and sit up. Jean sat still, looking towards the window to see if there would be any more lightning. There was a bright flash and he winced when the sound caught up a few seconds later. He pulled his blanket over his head and lay down again, closing his eyes and plugging his ears. That didn’t stop him from hearing it, though. Jean sat up again and looked at Marco, who was lying on his side and facing away from the window and towards Jean. Another flash of lightning lit up the room, and Jean caught a glimpse of Marco’s face. Marco stirred a little and his eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open, and—oh, _heck_ no, was he was drooling on Jean’s favourite stuffed animal? Jean lay down again and made himself a quick mental note to get mad at Marco for that the next morning, but the loud rumble of the thunder diverted his attention. Jean was too scared to sleep alone on the floor. He used to go to his parents’ room whenever he felt scared, until they told him that he was big enough that he had to face his fears on his own.

Without really putting much thought into it, Jean climbed into his bed and crawled over Marco. Jean looked down at Marco’s face and before he knew it, he pressed his lips against Marco’s cheek and felt his own cheeks growing warm before lying down behind him. Gently, so as not to wake him, Jean wrapped one of his arms around Marco. Jean felt his own heartbeat rising and he had to remind himself to breathe. Because Marco was holding onto Jean’s stuffed animal, he figured that it was only fair that Jean got to hug the real Marco while he slept. Jean’s hand found its way to one of Marco’s, and Jean tentatively tangled his fingers with the other boy’s. Maybe the thunder would be less scary if Jean was holding onto his best friend. Jean closed his eyes and listened to the other boy’s breathing, trying again to fall asleep. There were a couple more lightning strikes but the thunderstorm seemed to have been drifting further away, the light flashes not as frequent or bright, and the thunder not as loud. Eventually, Jean fell asleep.

The next morning, Marco woke up before Jean did. The first thing Marco noticed was that his hand was warm. Very warm. And sweaty. Then he saw that Jean was grabbing onto Marco’s hand. He wriggled his hand out of Jean’s grasp and then rolled over to face Jean. “Hey.” Marco shook Jean, trying to wake the other boy. “Jean, wake up.”

Jean scrunched his face. He yawned and sat up, rubbing his eyes before opening them halfway. “What?”

“I thought you said you wanted me to sleep in the bed and that you were okay with sleeping on the floor.”

“Uhm, I…” Jean looked away. “I saw a giant weird human that wanted to eat you so I had to protect you by sleeping in the same bed.” Yeah. Good one. Jean smiled and looked back at Marco.

“Monsters aren’t even real. Also, you were holding my hand.”

“Yes they are! I saw one last night try to eat you so I had to protect you! And I wasn’t holding your hand. You can’t prove that.”

“Well, my hand’s all sweaty…”

“That could be for a lot of reasons!” Jean then remembered the fact that Marco had been drooling on his stuffed giraffe. “Plus, last night I saw you drooling on Mar—on my stuffed giraffe.”

“Did not.”

“Did too!” Jean yanked the stuffed animal from Marco. “It’s still wet!” Just as Marco was about to protest and deny that he had ever drooled in his entire life, Jean’s mother came in and announced that breakfast was ready.

* * *

 

_Jean seated himself in the empty spot between Marco and Sasha. There was nothing unusual about that; throughout all of elementary and middle school, and even into their freshman year of high school, Jean and Marco were usually always together when they could be, and during lunch whoever got to the table first would save a space next to himself for the other. “So, Marco,” Jean started. “Uh.” Jean felt the blood rush to his cheeks. He fidgeted a little before turning to face Marco._

_“What?” Marco asked. He finally faced Jean and, seeing that his cheeks were reddening, worried that something was wrong. “Everything okay?”_

_“Marco, well… I…” Jean swallowed._

_“Do you need me to take you to the nurse?”_

_Jean had to remind himself to breathe. He could do this. He had to do this. “Uh. I. Kind of like you. And I was… wondering if you’d… go out with me?” Jean gave Marco a nervous smile._

_“HA!” Sasha stood up so fast that her chair fell over, and Marco briefly turned his attention away from Jean to Sasha instead. “I called it! I knew Jean would be the one to finally do something! Connie owes me fifty bucks!” she cheered._

_So that just happened. Marco looked back to Jean again and smiled. This time, it was Marco’s turn to blush. “Of course, Jean.”  They both ignored Sasha, who was frantically looking around the cafeteria for Connie while banging on the table and gloating about how she knew that Jean would be the one to take the initiative._

* * *

Jean was on the floor and Marco was in Jean’s bed again. Jean really could have slept on the couch or something, but he was fine with the floor. Before turning off the light, Jean noticed that Marco was holding onto the stuffed giraffe. Shit. Jean thought he hid it. How embarrassing. Then again, Marco was hugging it in his sleep, so Jean supposed that it couldn’t be _that_ bad. Jean pulled his blanket over himself.

As soon as Jean closed his eyes, a bright light lit up the room. Jean had never really gotten over his astraphobia, and though he wasn’t as scared as he was when he was a child, the sudden flashes and loud noises still bothered him. When Jean grew tired of plugging his ears and trying to block out the thunder and lightning, he crawled into his own bed. He leaned down for a kiss like he did years earlier, but Marco turned his head at the last possible moment and put a hand on the back of Jean’s head, pulling him into the kiss. Their lips stayed pressed together for a few seconds until Marco let go of Jean and flipped his body so that he was on his side, facing Jean.

“Remember when you tried the same thing with me when we were little?”

Jean had forgotten about the event until Marco brought it up. The memories came back to him and he was glad that the room was dark because he could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “Marco, what the fuck. That was like a million years ago. You’re not allowed to bring back embarrassing memories. And that probably isn’t even how it happened. You probably _asked_ me to kiss you because you were so scared.”

Marco chuckled before grabbing one of Jean’s hands. “Are you gonna want to hold my hand again?” He gave it a gentle squeeze. Jean smiled and lay down again, facing Marco. Still holding Marco’s hand, Jean threw his free arm across the other boy’s side, but Jean felt him tense up.

“Jean, I don’t think this is a good idea. What if your parents—”

“They… know.” Jean mumbled and nuzzled his head under Marcos chin. “About me, I mean. Both of them are okay with it. And they’ve probably already figured out that you and I—”A particularly loud thunderclap shook the room, and Jean let out the most undignified yelp he had ever heard. His hold on Marco tightened. _Way to be smooth, Kirschstein._ When Jean loosened his grip on Marco, he felt Marco finally relaxing again.

“You really haven’t changed that much. Let me guess, you’re not scared of the thunder, but you’re here to protect me from the monsters under your bed or something, right?” Marco smiled at him.

“Definitely.” Jean smirked.

“You dork.”

Jean was about to tell Marco to shut up, but he felt Marco’s fingers on his chin, tilting his head up. Jean didn’t even have time to react before Marco pressed his lips against Jean’s.

“Good night, Jean.”

Jean grinned. “Night, Marco.” The thunderstorm lasted for about another half hour, and Marco fell asleep a few minutes in. It was amazing how heavy of a sleeper he was. Jean kept his eyes closed, the occasional thunder rumbling, though it was no longer loud enough that it would make him jump. After the storm passed, Jean finally relaxed and nuzzled himself under Marco’s chin again. He listened to Marco’s slight snoring and rhythmic breathing, feeling the other boy’s chest rise and fall, before falling asleep himself.


End file.
